VirginiaManuFactory.com
Title
Virginia Manufactory of Arms-The historical accounts of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms
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Description
This is the only complete history of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms. In his research at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, the author discovered hundreds of documents previously thought to have been destroyed by fire after the capture of Richmond in 1865. Many of these are reproduced verbatim.
Established by the state in 1798, the Virginia Manufactory produced muskets, rifles, pistols, swords, and cannon for the state’s militia from 1802 through 1821. There were federal armories in Harpers Ferry (then located in Virginia) and in Springfield, Massachusetts. Virginia however, was the only state during the post-Revolutionary War era to arm its own troops completely with locally manufactured weapons. Indeed, Mr. Cromwell believes that Virginia was the first state to become fully aware of the necessity of arming its citizens. His thoroughly indexed discussion of important arms describes their evolution as well as their later conversion and use during the Civil War. Cromwell also points out the importance of the armory as a blend of eighteenth-century craftsmanship and nineteenth-century industrialism, and he carefully follows the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy.
Complete model identifications of all known kinds of Virginia Manufactory weapons are included. A chapter is devoted to each kind of weapon with annual production figures. One hundred and twenty five photographs illustrate every known Virginia Manufactory weapon model and the evolution of the armory building. The volume’s four appendixes are of special interest. The first explains the methods of stamping, or marking the state-owned weapons and their distribution to the militia with a complete list of the Virginia military divisions. The second presents various tables, including a list of the issue of swords by the Virginia Manufactory and a list of all the Virginia contract rifle makers in 1809-15. The third and fourth are directories of the armory’s suppliers and its artificers.
